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The post Dubai’s Air Traffic Increase Indicates Strong Recovery appeared first on TD (Travel Daily Media) Travel Daily.
As pandemic restrictions were lifted, Dubai International Airport saw an increase in passengers during the first half of 2022. The upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar will increase traffic to the city-second state’s airport, according to its CEO.
According to Paul Griffiths, CEO of Dubai Airports, the airport handled 160% more traffic in the last six months compared to the previous year as part of a global air travel rebound.
Even though Dubai’s key source market of China remains closed due to severe pandemic restrictions, the nearly 28 million people who have passed through the airport in the last six months represent roughly 70% of the airport’s pre-pandemic levels. Griffiths anticipates that traffic at the airport will return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of next year.
“It’s a very welcome increase in traffic,” Griffiths said.
International soccer fans will flock to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central for the Middle East’s first World Cup, he added (DWC). From there, they’ll make daily trips to Qatar.
“We’ve seen a lot of demand at DWC for slot filings for airlines that want to run a shuttle service,” he said. “I believe the World Cup has a lot to offer and a lot to gain for the city.”
He said that Qatar Airways, low-cost carrier FlyDubai, and budget airline Wizz Air Abu Dhabi are among the airlines buying extra slots to shuttle soccer fans to the tournament from DWC.
Plans to transform Dubai’s southern desert airfield into a mega-aviation hub, first announced by Dubai before the 2008 global financial crisis, have stalled in recent years. As commercial flights were halted due to the pandemic, long-haul carrier Emirates parked many of its double-deckers Airbus A380s in Dubai.
As a key East-West transit point, Dubai’s air traffic is closely monitored as a barometer of the city-non-oil state’s economy. Emirates remains the cornerstone of the larger empire known as “Dubai Inc.,” an interconnected network of government-owned businesses.
Dubai International Airport handled nearly 56% more flights in the first half of 2022 than in the same period in 2021 when the more contagious coronavirus variants ravaged the industry.
In a sign of the industry’s health, Emirates announced last Wednesday that it would invest billions of dollars in retrofitting much of its Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 fleet. The airline received a $4 billion government bailout during the height of the pandemic.
The widespread removal of virus restrictions has resulted in a surge in air travel demand, crowding Dubai’s hub and causing havoc at airports around the world.
While Dubai has not experienced the chaotic crowds that have engulfed European hubs in recent weeks, Griffiths claims that global disruptions have affected its main airport.
“It’s obviously had an impact on growth because some of the capacity caps that they’ve imposed on airports like Heathrow have had an impact on our numbers,” he explained.
Emirates lashed out at Heathrow last month, refusing to cap departing passengers and cutting flights to the London hub. Emirates later agreed to temporarily limit flight sales.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine sent Russia’s wealthiest businessmen scrambling to save their assets from what became a widening dragnet, Dubai has seen a surge in Russian visitors to its beachfront villas and luxury hotels. The city is still one of Moscow’s few remaining flight corridors.
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